audio review : Moon ( song ) … Kid Cudi ( featuring Don Toliver + Kanye West )

This, a sky-gazer’s hymn, is the best cut from Kanye West’s Donda album, but it would’ve been even better than it is if it had a more appropriate song structure. It barely qualifies as a song. There should be not one but two Kid Cudi verses with a Kanye West chorus break in-between.

That chorus, which has West conjuring the melodic chops he showcased on the demo/SNL version of Teyana Taylor’s We Got Love, doesn’t come till near the end. It’s a five-star bit though as he outsings both Cudi, who should also be praised for his wailing ad-libs, and Don Toliver.

my rating : 4 of 5

2021

audio review : Donda ( album ) ... Kanye West

audio review : Outer World ( song ) … Bass 305

The best part of this song is the breakdown near the middle when the drums stop to make way for what sounds like the harps of Heaven. “It creates an atmosphere,” a man says and what a peaceful atmosphere it is. It “might be dangerous”, but the music gives a sense, even if a false sense, of security.

The secret explorer concept seems to revolve around Outer space; a frequent hangout spot for Bass 305 when they’re not rattling car trunks here on Earth; but the aforementioned harp loop should’ve been expanded well beyond a mere eight bars. As is, the song ends up being rather anticlimactic.

my rating : 3 of 5

2021

audio review : Bass Resurrection ( album ) ... Bass 305

video review : Contact

video review : Contact

Like observing deep space via satellite, waiting for some sign of intelligent life, this movie is boring for a long time. About a third of its two-and-a-half hours goes by before the catch of the plot finally beams in and things start to get interesting.

Based on a Carl Sagan sci-fi novel, Contact propels itself with a wonderous concept, brilliant visual effects and mind-bending philosophical undertones, but the story, bogged down by extraneous love themes, doesn’t reach good fast enough.

my rating : 3 of 5

1997